How many gods are there in India and which gods are the most important? Which castes are untouchables? What did the ancient Aryans drink? How can you ruin food with your eyes? Why was sandalwood used for cremation of men and dung for women? Why does the desire to look like an old woman have an exclusively positive meaning? Why do Indian Parsi followers of Zoroastrianism never remove their headdresses? How is a turban wound? What word is used to replace the unlucky number “one”? How many times in a row should you sneeze to avoid causing trouble? What does the twitching of the right eye and the trembling in the right hand promise to an Indian, and how useful is it to wake up to see the tail of a black cow? The answers to these and many other questions can be read in this book. Andrei Evgenievich Snesarev (1865–1937) - lieutenant general of the tsarist army, orientalist scholar, rector and professor of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies.